Young Love
by Ali213
Summary: Sorry, very unoriginal title. AU - a little ficlet about two young X-Men - JOTT


Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men, but then you already knew that, didn't you.  
  
This is my first story that I've put onto Fanfiction.net, but I have quite a few others written in notebooks, so if you like it they'll be more  
  
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Scott turned round the side of the house and continued along the stone path that wove it's way around the garden of Xavier's mansion. He had been told by Hank almost half an hour ago that Jean was in the garden and had been looking for her ever since, but the trouble was, the gardens of the mansion were very large. He should have got Hank to be more specific. He was about to give up and head back to the house when a flash of red caught his eye. He picked up the pace a little, and soon saw that it was Jean, sitting in the branches of a tree, reading.  
  
"Hi."  
  
Jean jumped slightly as the noise, and looked down. Scott Summers' face was peering up at her through the leaves. She smiled, "Hi."  
  
"Watcha doin?"  
  
"Reading." She grinned when he looked annoyed.  
  
"I can see that. Why are you in a tree?" She shrugged, "seemed like a nice place. You wanna come up?"  
  
"Sure," He pulled himself up onto the first branch, and climbed up so he was sitting opposite her.  
  
"You know I've been looking for you for ages," he said, rather disgruntled,  
  
"you could have told me where you were going."  
  
"Well you seemed very happy playing 'Tony Hawks' and I thought you could use the practise"  
  
"Once Jean, you beat me once." She laughed, and he was annoyed to find it made his insides tingle.  
  
"OK, I'm sorry, I just wanted to be alone for a bit."  
  
"Oh, do you want me to go?" he got off his branch and began to climb down.  
  
"No! Not from you, stupid! He professor's been wanting to do more telepathy practice, and I'm really not in the mood. No," she said again, and then more quietly, "I'm glad you're here."  
  
He paused, and then pulled himself up again.  
  
"But just be quiet for one second while I finish my book, I'm almost done."  
  
Scott smiled. When Jean got started on an Agatha Christie, nothing, not meals, school or training, would keep her away from it. He found it quite funny that even though, at 13, Jean was a very advanced reader for her age, and would often have lengthy discussions with the professor about adult novels, she loved nothing more than a good detective story.  
  
He sat watching her as she read. He found himself doing that a lot recently, watching her. Ever since he'd got his glasses a couple of months ago, he couldn't keep his eyes off her. At first he'd put it down to teenage hormones; Jean was beautiful, and any 13 year-old boy would be likely to have a crush on her. Recently however, he'd been starting ton think it might be something more serious. Maybe he'd just been reading to much of Jean's chick-lit, but all the symptoms were there: electricity when they touched, an obsession with her eyes, an overpowering joy whenever he made her smile. The newest development, the one that was really starting to worry him, was a sense of emptiness when she wasn't near him. The thought that he needed her presence so much scared him, and made him think that this was more than just an adolescent crush.  
  
"Done," Jean snapped the book shut, startling Scott out of his thoughts, and smiled at him.  
  
"Did you guess who it was?"  
  
"Yes, but only two pages before it was revealed."  
  
"You're losing you're touch!" Scot joked.  
  
Jean shrugged, and they slipped into silence for a minute, before Jean broke it, "so why were you so desperate to find me Slim, something you want to talk about?"  
  
"Um, no, not really, I was just bored."  
  
Jean studied him closely, thinking there was more he wanted to say. "You sure?"  
  
"Yeah." Scott had decided a while ago that it would be best not to tell Jean of his feelings, mainly because eit might ruin their friendship, but also because even the idea of it made his insides shrivel up.  
  
"Anything you wanted to talk about?" he countered, because awkward silences were unusual between them, and there had to be a reason for it.  
  
"Well...sort of..." she trailed off, and Scott could see she was nervous; her hands were twisted in her lap. He caught them in his own, and held them still, the light brush of his thumb over hers soothing her nerves.  
  
"I got asked out, by Ryan Thomas," she blushed furiously, and looked down. A lead weight seemed to have fallen into Scott's stomach.  
  
"Ryan Thomas in the year above?"  
  
"Yeah...I haven't said yes yet," she added quickly, "I said I'd think about it."  
  
"Well, what is there to think about?" After getting over the initial shock and heartbreak off having your first love snatched away from you, Scott figured that Jean was going to start dating sometime, and Ryan was the kind of guy he'd always imagined her going for. He was in the football team, and had model good looks; he just wished Jean had been asked by someone in their year.  
  
"I don't know, I'm not sure if I want to go out with him."  
  
This just confused Scott, surely this was every girls' dream?  
  
"I don't know what we'd do. We'd go on a date, but where? And what would we talk about? I mean, I'm sure he's a nice guy but I don't think we have much in common," Jean looked very unhappy, she'd obviously been worrying about this a lot.  
  
Scott had never thought about dating in this way. Asking a girl out was the hard part, but once you were on a date...well, then you were on a date.But now that he thought about it, Jean was right, what would she and Ryan do? His teenage boy brain immediately found the answer to that, and he didn't like it.  
  
Jean seemed to have thought of this too, "And what if he wants to...do stuff. I don't know if I'd even want to kiss him."  
  
Scott looked surprised.  
  
"It's not that I don' like the idea of kissing guys, it's just that I barely know Ryan." She sighed, "I just wish it was someone I knew....better..." she trailed off as she caught Scott's eye, suddenly realizing what she'd said. Scott's breath caught in his throat, and his fingers froze on hers.  
  
Jean looked away. "I probably shouldn't even be telling you all this, you don't want to hear my stupid problems." She was flustered, and Scott could tell she was blushing, as she tucked her hair behind her ears, and picked up her book.  
  
"What are best friends for?" Scott said quietly.  
  
"Yeah." Jean sighed, and began to move off her branch to climb down. But then she stopped, and instead moved forward onto his, so she was sitting exactly opposite him.  
  
"Yeah," she said again, "thanks Slim, for listening."  
  
He shrugged, "sorry I couldn't be much help." He looked down, not wanting her to see the conflicting emotions behind his eyes.  
  
When he looked up she was looking at him oddly, a very slight smile on her face. She met his eyes beneath his glasses and leaned forward, cupping his cheek, until their lips met. Scott was too surprised for a second to move, but then he kissed back, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her closer. Her book fell from her hand onto the grass as she circled her fingers round his neck into his hair. It was short and sweet, and when they broke apart Scott was left with a faint taste of jean on his lips. She kept her eyes shut for a second, a smile on her face. When she opened them she blushed, then got up composedly, and climbed down the tree. She picked up her book from where it had fallen then stood, looking up at him.  
  
"Thank you, for my first kiss." Then she turned, and walked back up the path. Scott watched her till she turned the corner, a smile on his face.  
  
They never spoke of the kiss until years later, except once. Scott had persuaded jean that a date with Ryan wouldn't be too bad, and reassured by Ryan's good reputation, she had gone.  
  
After their second date Ryan walked Jean home, and when Scott came downstairs and saw her face as she came in, she looked slightly flushed. He raised his eyebrows for an explanation.  
  
"He kissed me," she said.  
  
"Oh," Scott nodded.  
  
As she made her way past him on the stairs, she paused and whispered in his ear, "he wasn't as good as you."  
  
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